How to hire a senior functional analyst

How to hire a senior functional analyst, step by step

Here's a step-by-step senior functional analyst hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a senior functional analyst job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new senior functional analyst
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a senior functional analyst do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   First, determine the employments status of the senior functional analyst you need to hire. Certain senior functional analyst roles might require a full-time employee, whereas others can be done by part-time workers or contractors.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   A senior functional analyst's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, senior functional analysts from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

   This list presents senior functional analyst salaries for various positions.

   Type of Senior Functional Analyst	Description	Hourly rate
   Senior Functional Analyst	Computer systems analysts study an organization’s current computer systems and procedures and design information systems solutions to help the organization operate more efficiently and effectively. They bring business and information technology (IT) together by understanding the needs and limitations of both.	$37-75
   Analyst Lead	The duties of an analyst lead depend on one's line of work or industry of employment. Typically, their responsibilities revolve around performing research and analysis, coordinating with different departments to gather leads and data, reviewing findings, and producing reports and presentations for the stakeholders and other higher-ranking officials... Show more	$35-58
   Software Analyst	A software analyst is responsible for creating and designing software programs and applications, as well as modifying existing ones for optimization according to business requirements. Software analysts work with the technical team to draw system codes, analyze programming languages, and ensure the stability and efficiency of software navigation by running multiple quality checks to the system... Show more	$29-47

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Business Process
   • Architecture
   • Functional Specifications
   • ERP
   • Sap Functional
   • Logistics
   • Fi
   • HR
   • User Acceptance
   • BI
   • Test Scripts
   • CRM
   • Technical Support
   • Test Cases

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Schedule, lead and manage UAT sessions with customers to finalize software acceptance.
   • Manage vendors and supervise campus project initiatives to provide infrastructure upgrades.
   • Provide production support to ECC 6.0 and CRM 4.0 systems.
   • Provide program control support for multimillion dollar DOD depot maintenance contract.
   • Participate in SDLC stages of projects, from analysis through post go-live support.
   • Function as scrum master in encouraging teams and the enterprise to mitigate problems.

   More senior functional analyst duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your senior functional analyst job description is a great way to entice the best and brightest candidates. A senior functional analyst salary can vary based on several factors:

   • Location. For example, senior functional analysts' average salary in alaska is 37% less than in california.
   • Seniority. Entry-level senior functional analysts earn 51% less than senior-level senior functional analysts.
   • Certifications. A senior functional analyst with a few certifications under their belt will likely demand a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for a prestigious company or an exciting start-up can make a huge difference in a senior functional analyst's salary.

   Average senior functional analyst salary

   $110,131yearly

   $52.95 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level senior functional analyst salary

   $77,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 20, 2025

   Average senior functional analyst salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$138,897	$67
   2	District of Columbia	$126,523	$61
   3	North Carolina	$119,929	$58
   4	Rhode Island	$117,665	$57
   5	Washington	$116,138	$56
   6	Texas	$113,563	$55
   7	Maryland	$113,555	$55
   8	Arizona	$111,998	$54
   9	New York	$111,333	$54
   10	Pennsylvania	$110,921	$53
   11	Georgia	$109,205	$53
   12	Colorado	$108,923	$52
   13	New Jersey	$108,662	$52
   14	Illinois	$106,757	$51
   15	Virginia	$105,891	$51
   16	Missouri	$105,693	$51
   17	Massachusetts	$104,929	$50
   18	Ohio	$102,282	$49
   19	South Carolina	$101,167	$49
   20	Michigan	$98,732	$47

   Average senior functional analyst salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Levi Strauss & Co.	$179,836	$86.46
   2	Apple	$161,499	$77.64	15
   3	PVH	$157,984	$75.95
   4	Nike	$156,306	$75.15	1
   5	Pure Storage	$155,102	$74.57	10
   6	Cloudflare	$152,223	$73.18	2
   7	Palo Alto Networks	$148,057	$71.18	3
   8	Expedia Group	$143,439	$68.96
   9	Juniper Networks	$142,258	$68.39
   10	Microexcel	$138,632	$66.65
   11	Rheem Manufacturing	$136,960	$65.85
   12	Tesoro	$135,695	$65.24
   13	MetLife	$133,336	$64.10	17
   14	BJ's Wholesale Club	$133,224	$64.05
   15	Domtar	$132,444	$63.67
   16	Jo-Ann Stores	$132,384	$63.65
   17	Koch Industries	$132,105	$63.51	2
   18	Starbucks	$131,469	$63.21	2
   19	Univar	$131,052	$63.01
   20	Rust-Oleum	$131,050	$63.00

4. Writing a senior functional analyst job description

   A job description for a senior functional analyst role includes a summary of the job's main responsibilities, required skills, and preferred background experience. Including a salary range can also go a long way in attracting more candidates to apply, and showing the first name of the hiring manager can also make applicants more comfortable. As an example, here's a senior functional analyst job description:

   Senior functional analyst job description example

   Introduction
   
   As a Package Consultant at IBM, get ready to tackle numerous mission-critical company directives. Our team takes on the challenge of designing, developing and re-engineering highly complex application components and integrating software packages using various tools. You will use a mix of consultative skills, business knowledge, and technical expertise to effectively integrate packaged technology into our clients' business environment and achieve business results.
   
   Your Role and Responsibilities
   
   As an SAP Functional Consultant you will serve as a client-facing practitioner who sells, leads and implements expert services utilizing the breadth of IBM's offerings and technologies. A successful Consultant is regarded by clients as a trusted business advisor who collaborates to provide innovative solutions used to solve the most challenging business problems.
   
   You will work on projects that help clients integrate strategy, process, technology, and information to increase effectiveness, reduce costs and improve profit and shareholder value. You can take advantage of opportunities to master new skills, work across different disciplines, move into new challenges and develop a robust understanding of different industries.
   
   Your primary responsibilities include:
   
   * Providing MM expertise to confirm/develop business requirements definition.
   * Providing configuration, data migration, interface, and functional support as necessary.
   * Leading design of MM interfaces, conversion programs, reports, and enhancements.
   * Developing and maintaining systems documentation including business process procedures, functional design specifications, process flows, and test cases.
   * Supporting development of training work products and respond to trainer questions.
   * Defining user authorization requirements.
   * Providing help desk support, assisting and resolving end user support problems, resolving MM defects ('break/fix'), analyzing proposed improvements or changes to the Navy ERP MM solution and system
   * Preparing/conducting briefings, demos or training sessions as needed.
   
   If you are hired into a Colorado or Ithaca, NY work location, the compensation range for this position is between $105,000 and $162,000 based on a full-time schedule. The salary will vary depending on your job-related skills and experience. For part time roles, your compensation will be adjusted to reflect your hours.
   
   Required Technical and Professional Expertise
   
   Experience as a technical expert across multiple project assignments specifically within SAP MM with configuration, cutover and interface experience.
   
   * Experience with planning and leading teams on major technology assignments including experience in post go-live production support and break/fix.
   * Experience in software development lifecycle surrounding requirements gathering, analysis, design, development, documentation, test (unit, functional, integration, regression, stress, and user acceptance), implementation, and postproduction support of standard and custom business solutions supporting various SAP modules, such as MM (in a Tier 3 environment).
   * Must have strong organization and communication skills, with the ability to focus on customer service and responsiveness, with sound customer handling.
   * Experience with evaluating performance results and recommending major changes affecting short-term project growth and success.
   * DoD project experience.
   * Ability to earn a DoD Secret clearance.
   * A bachelor's degree in a discipline related to the area of expertise. Additional relevant experience may be substituted for the degree.
   
   Preferred Technical and Professional Expertise
   
   * US Navy project experience

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find the right senior functional analyst for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important sources of talent for any company is its existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and current employees and ask if they know or have worked with senior functional analysts they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit senior functional analysts who meet your education requirements.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter now have more than 3.5 billion users, and you can use social media to reach potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your senior functional analyst job on Zippia to find and attract quality senior functional analyst candidates.
   • Use niche websites such as dice, engineering.com, stack overflow, it job pro.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   To successfully recruit senior functional analysts, your first interview needs to engage with candidates to learn about their interest in the role and experience in the field. You can go into more detail about the company, the role, and the responsibilities during follow-up interviews.

   Remember to include a few questions that allow candidates to expand on their strengths in their own words. Asking about their unique skills might reveal things you'd miss otherwise. At this point, good candidates can move on to the technical interview.

   While interviews are great, you will only sometimes learn enough from a conversation with a senior functional analyst applicant. In those cases, having candidates complete a test project can go a long way in figuring out who's the most likely to succeed in the role. If you aren't a technical person and don't know how to design an appropriate test, you can ask someone else on the team to create it or take a look at these websites to get a few ideas:

   • TestDome
   • CodeSignal
   • Testlify
   • BarRaiser
   • Coderbyte

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new senior functional analyst

   Once you have selected a candidate for the senior functional analyst position, it is time to create an offer letter. In addition to salary, the offer letter should include details about benefits and perks that are available to the employee. Ensuring your offer is competitive is vital, as qualified candidates may be considering other job opportunities. The candidate may wish to negotiate the terms of the offer, and it is important to be open to discussion and reach a mutually beneficial agreement. After the offer has been accepted, it is a good idea to formalize the agreement with a contract.

   You should also follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that you've filled the position.

   To prepare for the new employee's start date, you can create an onboarding schedule and complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9 forms, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Human Resources should also ensure that a new employee file is created.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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